2 Chronicles 23:11

put upon him the crown, andgave him the Testimony So LXX. and Heb. both here and in 2 Kings 11:12. It was the custom that the king at his accession should give a kind of charter to his people, and so "the testimony" mentioned here was probably some document testifying to the promises which had been thus made. When the crown was put upon the head of Joash this document was bound on with it, as a sign that his subjects" allegiance to him depended on his faithfulness towards them. The wearing of an inscription or of a document on a solemn occasion, though strange to Western thought, is not alien from Eastern methods; cp. Exodus 28:36 ff.; Deuteronomy 6:6-8; Job 31:35-36. Wellhausen has a brilliant but unconvincing conjectural emendation of this passage, viz., put upon him the crown and the bracelets; cp. 2 Samuel 1:10. The change in Heb. is a small one, but is it certain that bracelets formed part of the royal insignia? Rashi for "the testimony" gives "the ornaments."

Jehoiada and his sons In Kings, "they anointed him" (without specifying the actors).

God save the king Lit., Let the king live!